The Top Tips for Navigating Taste WA: What to Eat, Drink

Taste WA is this weekend and if you haven't scored tickets yet, you best hurry.

Now in its 17th year, the two-day event manages to shove in quite an impressive number of food and wine vendors under one roof (226 wineries, 68 restaurants), making this shindig slightly overwhelming. Joining me now to help navigate you towards the “can’t miss” spots is Paul Zitarelli, who covers Washington wine for Seattle Magazine.

Here are his picks for:

5 New Wineries to Check Out

Echo Ridge Cellars – estate fruit from a vineyard formerly owned by Drew Bledsoe, made into wine by Billo Naravane of Rasa Vineyards.

Syncline – best known for spreading the gospel of Rhone varieties, but their white wines and sparkling wines are equally compelling.

Woodward Canyon – easily a Mt. Rushmore-level winery, with wines as good as their history is long.

3 Etiquette Tips

Have a plan. With hundreds of wineries pouring, there’s no way to taste everything. Take some time out ahead of the event to plan out which wineries you’re most interested in targeting.

Keep moving. Taste Washington is an event for five-minute conversations, not twenty. Keep an eye on the crowd behind you, and if you start to hear muttering, it’s probably time to proceed to the next table.

Don’t be the biggest drunk in the room. Spit all the wines you taste, hydrate constantly, and take advantage of all the delicious food.

Here are the Top 5 bites I’m most looking forward to checking out:

RN74 — bacon deviled eggs. The smoked salmon deviled eggs at RN74 are some of my favorites, so how could these be any less stellar?

Aragona (Sunday only) — xuxos: crispy fried pastry stuffed with vanilla cream and dusted with truffle salt. I order these every single time I'm at Aragona. These are simply some of the best little dessert nuggets in all the land.